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Have any of you ever heard of the lynching of Mrs. Mary Turner of Valdosta, Georgia... It epitomizes the devaluation of Black Life in the United States, and the sudden swift, and merciless brutality of White Folks... Read it, and pour a virtual libation for our sister, and the many thousands of African Americans who lost their lives in this savage and barbaric land...

Georgia, 1918

Hampton Smith, a white farmer, had the reputation of ill treating his Negro employees. Among those whom he abused was Sidney Johnson, a Negro peon, whose fine of thirty dollars he had paid when he was up before the court for gaming. After having been beaten and abused, the Negro shot and killed Smith as he sat in his window at home He also shot and wounded Smith’s wife.

For this murder a mob of white men of Georgia for a week, May 17 to 24, engaged in a hunt for the guilty man, and in the meantime lynched the following innocent persons: Will Head, Will Thompson, Hayes Turner, Mary Turner, his wife, for loudly proclaiming her husband’s innocence, Chime Riley and four unidentified Negroes. Mary Turner was pregnant and was hung by her feet. Gasoline was thrown on her clothing and it was set on fire. Her body was cut open and her infant fell to the ground with a little cry, to be crushed to death by the heel of one of the white men present. The mother’s body was then riddled with bullets. The murderer, Sidney Johnson, was at length located in a house in Valdosta.

The house was surrounded by a posse headed by the Chief of Police and Johnson, who was known to be armed, fired until his shot gave out, wounding the Chief. The house was entered and Johnson found dead. His body was mutilated. After the lynching more than 500 Negroes left the vicinity of Valdosta, leaving hundreds of acres of untilled land behind them...

On a Sunday afternoon, April 23, 1899, more than 2,000 white Georgians, some of them arriving from Atlanta on a special excursion train, assembled near the town of Newman to witness the execution of Sam Hose, a black Georgian. Hose had thrown an ax in self-defense when his white employer, Alfred Cranford, had threatened him with a gun, and the ax had buried itself in Cranford's skull, killing him. Within two days, the newspapers had dreamt up an altogether different scenario: Cranford had been eating dinner when Hose - "a monster in human form" - sneaked up on him, buried an ax in his skull, and after pillaging the house, dragged Mrs. Cranford into the room where her husband lay dying and raped her. Mob justice would mete out the punishment for this mythical crime: After stripping Hose of his clothes and chaining him to a tree, the self-appointed executioners stacked kerosene-soaked wood high around him. Before saturing Hose with oil and applying the torch, they cut off his ears, fingers, and genitals, and skinned his face. While some in the crowd plunged knives into the victim's flesh, others watched "with unfeigning satisfaction" the contortions of Sam Hose's body as the flames rose, distorting his features, causing his eyes to bulge out of their sockets, and rupturing his veins. The only sounds that came from the victim's lips, even as his blood sizzled in the fire, were, "Oh, my God! Oh, Jesus." Before Hose's body had even cooled, his heart and liver were removed and cut into several pieces and his bones were crushed into small particles. The crowd fought over these souvenirs. Shortly after the lynching, one of the participants reportedly left for the state capital, hoping to deliver a slice of Sam Hose's heart to the governor of Georgia, who would call same Hose's deeds "the most diabolical in the annals of crime."

July 19, 1935 Ft Lauderdale FL Rubin Stacy was being escorted to the Dade County jail to serve time for an accused violation against a white woman Marion Jones. En route a white mob took Mr. Stacy from the six white deputies whereupon they went to the home of Marion Jones and hung Mr. Stacy, still wearing the handcuffs from earlier in the day. It was later discovered upon investigation that Mr. Stacy had in fact only come to the house asking for food and marion jones seeing the Black man at her door screamed and later had him arrested. None of the people involved in the lynching ever stood trial for the murder of the innocent man.

Mississippi's lynching legacy is extensive. From 1882 through 1968, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 539 blacks and 42 whites were lynched in the Magnolia State. Our state was the per capita leader in lynching murders and mob violence, and today there are many surviving family members who were alive when loved ones were lynched. Remember these records became funny after 1968 ...when a lot of lynchings then became suicides and accidental deaths...

Did you know?
Did you know that the pictures from lynchings were sold as souvenir postcards sometimes in sets showing the victim before during and after the lynching with peckerwoods smiling posing and such in shots with the lynching victim....
Funny how white folk and some Black folk now all want to say 9/11 we'll never forget all the while telling us to forget the lynchings that followed jubilee, the black codes and jim crow justice....lynchings that still happen now today in my own backyard to people that my parents know and knew....personally I've forgotten 9/11 already but will never forget our legacy of lynching it's victims call me at night and whisper in my ears during the day always saying the same thing.....don't forget us don't forget us Red never never!!!!!!

June 16, 2000 Kokomo Mississippi Raynard Johnson was found hanging from a pecan tree in the front yard of his family's home. Ruled a suicide. Funny thing is he had white friends and dated a white girl...He was 17 years old at the time of his death.

His name was Jesse Washington, a 17-year-old black youth who was born in rural Texas in 1897. He worked on a farm outside Waco which belonged to George and Lucy Fryer. In May, 1916, Washington was convicted in City Court of murdering Lucy Fryer. During the proceedings, he apologized and confessed to the crime. At the end of the trial, Washington was sentenced to death by hanging. Residents, however, were already in an uproar over the crime. A black man who attacked a white woman in any way whatsoever during that era in the South evoked little sympathy from the public. Within five minutes of the sentencing, dozens of court spectators jumped the railing, fought with officials and seized the terrified defendant. He was immediately set upon by a vicious gang using clubs, shovels and bricks. He was stripped naked and dragged kicking and screaming to the lawn directly in front of City Hall. Townspeople had already built a giant bonfire underneath a large tree. The crowd was later estimated to be as large as 15,000 people. Included in the cheering multitude was the Police Chief and the Mayor of Waco. Other police officers also stood by during the sickening ordeal which played out in the symbolic shadow of City Hall Washington was immersed in coal oil, hoisted up onto the tree and slowly lowered into the fire. Some of the spectators cut off fingers and toes from the corpse as souvenirs . His remains were dumped into a burlap bag and hung from a pole while many in the crowd cheered

James Irwin was lynched on January 31, 1930. Irwin was accused of the murder of a white girl in the town of Ocilla, Georgia. Taken into custody by a rampaging mob, his fingers and toes were cut off, his teeth pulled out by pliers and finally he was castrated. It still wasn’t enough. Irwin was then burned alive in front of hundreds of onlookers .

One of the reasons that has been listed for lynching and this is true was unpopularity...

I got a link for yall to check out I know it should probably be on the links section but it's relevant to this tread..